Should You Buy: God of War

Ocarina of War.

By
Shunal Doke

Without getting too into it just yet, God of War is a strange game. It’s a far cry from what the series used to be - a series of hack-and-slash action games that cared more for awesome killing animations than actual story or challenging gameplay. And since I’m one of the five people on this planet that thinks the series peaked with its second instalment, expectations were quite low going into the new God of War. Having spent a reasonable amount of time with it (and looking forward to returning and spending even more time in the world of Midgard), it’s pretty safe to say that God of War is a really good game. But then we all knew that didn’t we. Reviews for God of War have been almost hyperbolic in praise, with many calling it a masterpiece. I’m going to try something different here and offer the other side of the coin.

Gameplay

The gameplay is always the most important part of any video game for me, and this was where my expectations for God of War were at their lowest. I was afraid that this new focus on the story and the relationship between Kratos and Atreus would take centre stage over actual gameplay, especially in an age where story-centric games are insanely popular. Thankfully, God of War far surpassed my expectations. Its slow, methodical combat might not be like its predecessors, nor is it all that original (the Soulsborne influence is obvious). But it’s not a complete wash either like some other story-centric games out there (*cough*The Witcher 3*cough).

It still has the same basic concept as its predecessors; you have a light attack, a heavy attack, and a block/parry. The newer additions, namely the ability to throw/recall your axe and a separate moveset dedicated to good old fisticuffs, do quite a bit to keep combat fresh. The big knock against the combat, and the overall game, is how absurdly close the camera stays to Kratos. Yes, I understand the use of this up-close-and-personal camera to tell Kratos’ story on a more intimate level and all that, but it IS pretty annoying to be repeatedly hit by enemies from way out of your field of view. Hell, the game acknowledges this with the delightfully old school “turn 180 degrees” button, right out of Resident Evil 4. But we were still figuring out dual analog controls for shooters back when RE4 came out. God of War’s story excuse is considerably weaker.

Outside of the combat, the camera works fine, and I will admit the one-shot camera thing is pretty cool and works well as a storytelling device. Speaking of non-combat gameplay, God of War, while quite linear in its story, has a really cool world that’s just begging to be explored. And the game does encourage this quite well, cleverly showing you alternate paths and rewarding exploration with crafting materials and loot.

Oh, did I forget to mention? God of War has loot now. And by all accounts, while it’s nice to have, it’s clearly half-baked. Sure, they do some interesting things with some of the loot, like runes you can add to your axe for entirely new moves, but they’re otherwise the bog-standard stat-increasing fare you can expect from any RPG hybrid these days. Thankfully, considering how… incomplete it all feels, you can safely get by while just half-assing the crafting and loot side of the game. The skill tree, on the other hand, is as important as ever. And it IS quite cleverly designed. Each branch of the tree specifically levels up what you can do with one specific button, giving you new moves and otherwise increasing the damage of your existing moves in the process. The skill tree does have the unfortunate side effect of making the combat quite boring until you start unlocking some real options, which comes in at around the 3-4 hour mark into the game, depending on how much time you spend exploring.

All in all, with God of War evokes a game I honestly wasn’t expecting. Its mix of dungeon crawling, large-scale puzzles and combat reminded me a lot of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. And let me tell you, if you’ve never played an Ocaina of Time-styled Zelda game in your life, your experience won’t be too far off if you just play the new God of War game instead. Considering the legend of Ocarina of Time and what it did for gaming in general, this might just be the best compliment I can pay God of War.

Story

The story’s pretty well-written, and the interactions between Kratos and Atreus are a sight to behold. But what really sets God of War apart from most of the other games out there is the presentation. That one-shot camera I talked about earlier may have been annoying in combat, but I can’t ignore just how effective it is at keeping up-close and personal with everything Kratos, and by extension Atreus, go through.

Special mention has to go to the side characters in God of War, being one of the best supporting casts in gaming. Brok and Sindri, especially, are downright hilarious to talk to, especially once you get to know them more along your adventures. The Witch is also a well-realised character, and has the honour of introducing you to some of the most beautiful visuals in the game.

Honestly, saying anything substantial about the story without spoiling it is crazy difficulty, so I’ll just leave you with the fact that Norse mythology is the perfect way to continue Kratos’ story, and while the internet may make quite a few jokes at the expense of Kratos' habits of referring to Atreus as "boy", it's quite easy to see that this comes from a place of affection rather than outright making fun of the whole thing.

So, should you buy it?

God of War is definitely not the Game of the Generation Masterpiece that everyone is making it out to be. It definitely has its problems, and if you’re a fan of Soulsborne games, the combat is just similar enough to evoke those games but falls short in just enough places that you’d want to go back to Dark Souls or Bloodborne instead. It is, however, definitely a game very worth playing. It has some of the best story presentation and writing we’ve seen in a while, and its Ocarina of Time-esque gameplay does a great job of making exploration and puzzle solving feel fun and rewarding. The new, mature direction the story has taken is a welcome change from the unhinged exercise in poor anger management that the earlier God of War games were. Hell, its a good enough game to be an insanely good argument for buying Sony’s system over the competition, right up there with Bloodborne and Yakuza 0.